ride height problems-At my wits end!

[roger powell]

Car - 62 Ford Fairlane S.c.
Problem - I;m using a Fatman Fabricators fr.suspension kit designed for the early Fairlane (62-65 are the same chassis) consisting of Mustang 79-04 struts, 94 spindles, new tubular lower A arms & a coil over spring
You slip the supplied aluminum threaded collar over the strut(collar to adjust ride height) & the spring sits on this collar. (spring 14"-225 spring rate)
When i crank the adjuster down to get my non stock ride height (4" lower than stock) on any kind of good sized bump, the spring goes into coil bind, i know by the awful WACK, noise!)
If i crank the adjuster up, putting pressure on the spring, the car rides fine, no WACK, but this makes the front end of the car way to high.
We went to a 12"-225 rate spring & it gives me the ride height i want, but ,again, on any kind of good bump, the dreaded WACK is back)
I should mention, with the 12" spring, & adjuster down, the spring is quite loose on the strut. I went through your spring chart, plugged in all the blanks & these #;s are shown for correct springs - 1- 590120200 2- 590120225. I;m hoping you can help me as buying more springs is getting costly! Should i look at buying dropped spindles & go with a 12" spring or do you think, as suggested, my 225 spring rate is to light & i should be looking at a heavier spring?
Car weight - 3,100 pounds/motor -Sm.Block based 347 stroker
thanks for any suggestions
Roger - Ontario, Canada

[britt@ridetech.com]

The first thing we need to figure out is when the car bottoms out what is actually hitting.
What can hit:
-coil bind
-bumpstop (or suspension to frame if you don't have bumpstops)
-tire to inner fender (or whatever else it may hit)
-shock fully compressed

You stated coil bind so I'm guessing you've already looked into this. . .when you hit coil bind do the items listed above all have clearance? If so we know we can address it with the coil spring. If the shock is bottoming out or something else is limiting travel we'll have to address that first.

Can you post some pics so we can see what's going on?

If it is simply coil bind we can get some good quality Hyperco coils in there. By using a high tensile wire Hyperco can use fewer windings in the same length to achieve the same spring rate. This means the spring can compress more than the comparable "inexpensive" spring. This may be enough to allow the suspension travel you desire.